Hopelessly Human
by Aerle
Summary: Inspector Marco Fenwick is on his way home when he sees someone being attacked. Things turn more complicated when he finds out it's someone he knows. Written for the MarcoAce week 2015.


Written for the MarcoAce week 2015 day 6 with the theme "Misery".

Title is from the song by Kansas.

* * *

It had been a long day, and Marco couldn't wait to get home. With his car in the garage, he was forced to walk home from the police station. His partner had offered him a ride, but by the time he had finished his paperwork and was ready to leave, she had already left.

It wasn't even that long of a walk, but Marco had had barely any sleep with the case they were working on. Fortunately, that was all wrapped up now, though the paperwork had taken a considerable amount of time. Whitey had been right to leave early.

Marco turned a corner into an alley, which was a shortcut to his home. Suddenly, cries hit his ears, amongst them a child. He located his pepperspray and, just in case, his gun, and cautiously proceeded.

In the middle of the alley, a group of people was standing in a circle around an individual who they kicked and beat. A child ran up to them, already covered in bruises and tried to get into the circle by beating his tiny fists against the legs of one of the assailants. He was roughly pushed back. Immediately, he scrambled to his feet again to try again.

Marco ran over to the group. "Stop, police!" he called.

The assailants immediately fled, leaving the victim lying for dead.

The boy ran towards the person on the ground, wailing loudly. "Ace!"

Marco was torn between chasing after the assailants and calling for help, but it seemed that the victim needed immediate medical assistance. He kneeled down by the wounded man, pushing the boy back gently, who kept repeating the name "Ace". Marco took it that was the victim's name. He got out his phone and dialled the emergency number while he felt Ace's pulse. It was beating softly, but at least he was still alive.

After what felt like forever, his call was answered. He quickly gave his name and location, and asked for an ambulance. After that, he called for backup. The assailants were probably long gone, but perhaps someone had seen something.

After he had hang up, he looked back down at Ace again. He was still young, in his early twenties, Marco guessed, although it was difficult to see with all the blood. The left half of his face and torso were bruised and had cuts on it. His left eye seemed to be damaged as well. Marco took off his coat and tried to staunch the blood flow a little.

Marco tried to stay calm, but that was a hard thing to do with the crying child next to him. The kid was barely six years old and covered in bruises as well, though fortunately not nearly as bad as Ace. Marco looked at the lying figure again. Technically, Ace could be old enough to be the boy's father. Or would they be brothers?

Marco turned to the boy, placing his free hand in the child's shoulder, while he kept checking Ace's pulse with the other. "Hi, I'm Marco," he said in a soothing voice, hoping it would have a calming effect on the kid. "I'm working for the police. There is an ambulance on its way. Ace is going to be fine, okay?"

The boy stopped wailing, but the tears kept streaming down his cheeks.

Finally, the ambulance arrived. Marco moved away from Ace to give the nurses room. The boy didn't want to leave and kept calling Ace's name when Marco lifted him up.

He asked if he could ride along to the hospital. Inside the ambulance, Marco took a seat next to the boy, who was still sniffling.

"Ace is going to be okay," Marco said. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Lu-luhuffy," the boy blubbered.

"Can you write that down for me?" Marco handed him his block note and pen. It would give the boy a bit of distraction, assuming he could write already, and Marco would know for sure how many h's there would be in his name, because he suspected none.

The boy started writing with a consentrated look on his face. His tongue stuck slightly out of his mouth. When he handed the note pad back to Marco, Marco looked at what was written there. "So, Luffy, can you tell me what happened tonight?"

Luffy wiped his nose with his arm and nodded. Marco took out a paper towel and let him blow his nose first.

Then Luffy started to tell without taking time to breathe. "We were walking home and those guys came out and they started to call stuff at us and Ace ignored them and then they started to threat us and then they attacked and at first Ace fought them off but then they attacked all at once and–"

"Ace is your… brother?" Marco guessed.

Luffy nodded. "He takes care of me. But then those… those meanies hit him and kicked him and–" He started to sniffle again.

"It's okay," Marco said soothing. "You're safe now. And you fought really bravely."

When they arrived at the hospital, Ace was immediately rushed into surgery to stop internal bleeding. Luffy wanted to go with him, but Marco had him first checked out by a nurse. She disinfected the cuts and put plasters on them, but fortunately, Luffy wasn't hurt too bad.

In the meantime, Marco tried to pry a description out of him from the assailants, but the best he got was "big and ugly".

It took about an hour before someone came telling them that Ace was out of surgery, and that he was okay. He was still weak, but Marco could talk to him. Before Marco had been able to thank the nurse, Luffy had sprinted off to find Ace. Marco chased him and managed to catch up with him. He took Luffy's hand and let him to the room the nurse had mentioned.

Ace was lying with his eyes closed, but one eyelid fluttered open when Luffy jumped on the bed. The other eye was covered in bandages.

"Ouch! Luffy!" Ace muttered, but wrapped his arms around his crying brother nonetheless.

Marco stood a bit awkwardly in the middle of the room, unnoticed by either brother.

Ace pushed Luffy back and observed him with a worried frown. "Does it hurt?"

Luffy shook his head.

"Thank goodness," Ace muttered and pulled Luffy close.

Marco figured he would better wait until the reunion was over and was about to leave the room when Luffy called after him.

"Mr Policeman?"

Marco turned around.

Ace was looking at him now too, his one working eye squinted suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"I'm inspector Marco Fenwick. I saw what happened in the alley and called for an ambulance." Marco showed his ID.

"He saved you," Luffy declared happily.

Marco took a seat next to the bed. "I'd like to hear what happened, if you're up to it."

"We were walking down the alley and–" Luffy began again, but Marco lifted up his hand.

"Luffy, you had your chance, now it's your brother's turn, okay?"

There was a soft knock on the door, and when Marco turned around, he saw Whitey standing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked surpised.

"You don't think I'm letting you do overtime without me?" she replied.

Marco smiled. "This is my partner, inspector Whitey Bay. Whitey, could you take Luffy to get some candy or something?"

"Of course." She held out her hand. "Would you like something, Luffy?"

Luffy's eyes started to shine, but he first looked at Ace.

Ace smiled weakly. "Go ahead, Lu. And be nice to the police lady."

"Yosh!" Luffy called out and took Whitey's hand.

Marco flipped open his note pad as they left the room. Whitey was always quick to pick up on things, and perhaps she could pry some more out of Luffy. Something useful, that is.

Ace sighed and closed his eye.

Marco studied the visible half of his face. Now that the blood was washed away and could Marco see his freckled face. It looked kinda familiar…

Marco's eyes widened. Now he remembered. Ace was the barista of the coffee shop he _may_ have flirted with a little. He wondered of Ace recognised him now.

"We were just walking home, you know," Ace started with a weak voice. "Then these guys block our way. Sayin' something about it being their territory or whatever. I tried to walk on, I wasn't looking for trouble with Luffy with me…" He sighed again and opened his eye. "They then attacked. I told Luffy to run, but he can be so stubborn! I managed to fight them off at first, but there were too many of them."

"How many did you see?" Marco had counted five, but he wanted to be sure that were all of them.

"Five, six maybe? I'm not sure." Ace massaged his temple.

"Could you describe them? I was too far away to have a good look."

"Just one. I'll never forget that ugly mug for the rest of my life. Fat guy, with black hair and missing some teeth." Ace almost spat out the words.

"Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist?"

When Ace nodded, Marco closed his notebook. "We're doing everything to find the persons responsible for this. You should rest now. I'll send the sketch artist by tomorrow."

"Wait."

Marco turned around by the door.

"I know you." Ace turned his head slightly. "You're double espresso guy."

A smile crept on Marco's face. "That's what you call me?"

Ace gave him a sheepish look. "You always order the same."

Marco shook his head. "Try to get some rest."

Ace nodded. "What the hell am I going to do with Luffy, though?" he muttered.

"You don't have any friend of family in town he can stay with?" Marco asked.

Ace shook his head. "Not in town, no. And not close enough that they can pick him up."

Marco was about to suggest his Pops' daycare. Pops even had a place where children could stay overnight if parents had nightshifts or something. But then he remembered that Ace barely knew him, so why would he trust his advice for his little brother?

He was just trying to come up with something to say, when someone rushed through the door. "Ace! What the hell happened to you?!"

Confused, Marco looked around. "Izo?"

"Marco?" Izo looked at Ace and then back at Marco. "This wasn't an accident?"

"You know each other?" Ace asked, equally confused.

" _You_ know each other?" Marco asked as well.

Izo rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know you both. I'm Marco's brother. And Ace assists me on the weekends." He turned to Ace. "I thought you had an accident. Who did this to you?!"

"I'm looking into it, Izo, don't worry," Marco said soothing.

"How is Luffy, is he okay?"

"Yeah. He's getting candy with his partner," Ace nodded at Marco, "so he's fine. I just need to find a place for him to stay as long as I'm here."

"You could place him in Pops' daycare," Izo suggested.

Marco gritted his teeth.

"Really?" Ace asked.

Izo nodded. "He has a place for the kids to sleep and everything. I can take him there if you like?"

Ace sighed in relief. "That would be amazing. Thank you so much!"

Marco felt a stab of misplaced jealousy when Ace beamed like that at Izo. _He_ had had the same idea. But Ace knew Izo better than Marco. Another reason to be jealous.

Izo looked from one to the other and sighed deeply.

* * *

Marco didn't see Ace again for several weeks. He had sent the sketch artist, Usopp, to Ace as promised, and Ace had managed to give a detailed description. They soon had found the guy, a man by the name of Marshall Teach, who also flipped on his partners for a deal of a shorter sentence in prison.

Ace had to testify in court, and so had Marco. That was when he saw Ace again for the first time. Most of Ace's wound had healed, but he had many scars on the left side of his face, and he had become partly blind to that eye as well. Teach and his accomplices were all sentenced to eight year in prison for assault and battery.

When the trial was over, Marco had wanted to congratulate him, but duty had called and he was called away.

That didn't mean Marco didn't think about Ace a lot. He had wanted to ask Ace out for a long time, but the only time he saw him was when Ace was working, and Ace was paid to be nice to customers. It has _seemed_ like Ace flirted right back at him, but he couldn't be sure.

At the hospital obviously had been an inappropriate time to even consider asking him out. Ace had needed his recovery time too, and the closure of the trial.

While Ace's handsome appearance had been what first attracted him, Marco was intrigued by him. He had seen Ace been worried about his little brother more than he had been about himself. He still wanted to learn more about Ace, but even if he could find out Ace's address in the case file, that would seem a bit stalker-ish. He had gone back to the coffee shop, but Ace hadn't been there.

He was currently on his way to Pops' house, because Thatch had called him and asked him to help out with a 'problem'. What the problem was he wouldn't say, supposedly because it was too difficult to explain. Marco had just sighed and gotten into his car. Thatch was vague more often, so he was used to it.

Marco parked his car and shook his head. He should just forget about Ace.

Forgetting about someone is very hard, however, if they're standing right in front of you, all of the sudden. Marco blinked, hardly looking intelligibly.

Ace stopped in his tracks, looking just as confused as Marco felt. He was holding Luffy's hand. "Hi," Ace said awkwardly.

"Hey," Marco replied. "So, Pops' daycare is to Luffy's liking?" he asked, in an attempt to start a conversation.

"I like it!" Luffy said with a grin.

"He really does. And Pops'… er, Mr Newgate has given us a friends and family discount, so it's affordable," Ace said.

Marco looked at Ace. He still had scars, just as at the trial. His left eye was intact, but the iris had turned a greyish hue.

"I… haven't seen you at the coffee shop anymore." Marco scratched the back of his head.

Ace let out a humourless laugh. "Yeah, they fired my ass. Said I was scaring the customers. Whatever."

"They can't do that like that!" Marco cried out indignantly. "Are you suing them?"

"I don't have the money to do that, so no. But Izo has hired me fulltime, so it's okay. And I can make long hours since Luffy likes it so much here. So even if I stay out late, say, because of a date. Or… don't come home at all…" Ace glanced sideways at Marco.

Marco froze. Was… Was Ace asking him out? Well, no, but maybe hinting at it? Marco looked at Luffy, but he was distracted by something shiny.

"It's good that Luffy likes it here. I guess I'll see you around then," Marco replied. He immediately hated himself.

Ace's face fell.

"For the love of…!" Izo came storming towards him. It appeared he had been hiding behind a tree. "Really, Marco? _Really_? Could he be any clearer?!"

Marco opened his mouth to reply, but Izo sighed and rubbed his temples. "Never mind. God, if I'd only known that you were the double espresso guy Ace had been talking about for _weeks_."

"Izo!" Ace's cheeks coloured red.

"And you," Izo turned to Marco, ignoring Ace completely, "you could have told me you had a crush on a barista you'd been flirting with, then I'd put two and two together. Honestly, do I have to do everything myself?"

"Izo, don't bother," Ace said. His facial expression had changed and he looked away. "He's not interested. Not anymore." His hand reached up to the scarred side of his face.

"That's not true," Marco said sharply.

"Oh?" Ace looked at him brusquely. "So are you saying that you're still interested or are you just insulted I called you shallow?"

"I _am_ still interested. It just… it never seemed like the right time," Marco started.

"Now doesn't seem like the right time? I basically throw myself at your feet and you're saying 'see you around'?"

"No! I just…" Marco sighed. "I didn't want you to think that the only reason I took this case was to get into your pants."

"Did you?" Ace asked.

"No, of course not!"

"He does want to get into your pants though," Izo said.

Marco gave him a deadly look. Izo shrugged and rolled his eyes.

Marco glanced carefully over at Ace.

Ace's mouth had curled into a smile. "Well, let's try dinner first and we'll see how it goes…"


End file.
